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They say that all the best people get support to get them to the top and to keep them there. It is a sign of vision, strength, and drive to want to take your performance and productivity seriously enough to invest in yourself and your business in this way. But how do you know what kind of support you need?
I recently signed up for a very expensive service from someone who positions himself as an expert, no, THE expert in his field. I was given a lot of promises which made the large investment a no-brainer.
I have pretty high standards and, over the years, I have learned to lower them. And lower them some more. So, even with the hype, I wasn’t expecting everything which was offered to the degree it was positioned.
However, after a possible 20% delivery and 80% disappointment, and having given said-company ample time to catch up with themselves, I was told they were too busy to deal with it. They had new customers to deal with. New customers are EXCITING. Problems are boring – or so they believe. He is operating the customer churn and burn strategy.
This individual is pretty charismatic. He is good at winning new business. However, his reputation is being tarnished because he is good at customer attraction and very poor at customer retention. Given that keeping a customer is less expensive than attracting a new customer. And that there are only so many customers in the world, no matter how charismatic you are, looking at how to keep the ones you have is an important part of your business strategy.
Brand management and reputation management are key to this. So, a couple of questions for you:
Here are some of the customer retention strategies I teach my clients:
Your customers will forgive you a lot of you care about them.
Tricia Woolfrey is an integrative business coach helping people like you and companies like yours perform at their best, so that you can be more profitable, with less stress and with your integrity intact. Call 0845 130 0854 for a free telephone consultation.
© Tricia Woolfrey 2014
How do you know if you are a manager or a leader?
There are few job titles with the word “leader” in them. Manager or Director (depending on your level of seniority) seem to be the titles of choice – Customer Services Manager, Finance Director, Marketing Manager, Human Resources Director, etc. Yet, the title is not an indication. Being a manager is as important as leadership. However, without leadership, you are missing a crucial element in business success – winning people’s hearts and minds.
Management can be thought of as being the ‘nuts and bolts’ of your role, with duties such as:
All of these are absolutely essential and create a framework, structure and systems to achieve results which are monitored and course-corrected on a regular basis.
A leader, by contrast will be more of a visionary and will motivate and inspire people to follow. Their focus will be on the long-term and they will be concerned with:
Creating a vision will usually require change and a good leader will inspire the team to be motivated for that change which might otherwise be met with resistance. A leader paints a picture that people want to be part of and want to help make happen.
Managers deal with “shoulds” (the realms of necessity) while leaders deal with “coulds” (the realms of possibility).
Of course, leadership and management are not mutually exclusive. There is a lot of overlap between the two. A good leader will need good management qualities. A good manager will require good leadership qualities. If you tend to be a good leader but are not good at the planning, implementation and problem solving, it’s essential to have a very good, reliable and loyal team to do this for you. If you are a good manager without the leadership qualities, you will need a good leader managing you to help you pass on the vision to your team. Both skills can be learned and, with both skills, you will be a rounded professional contributing fully to the success of your team and your business.
And, to close, off, the wonderful Stephen Covey said “Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.” You have to have your vision right, otherwise you are managing the wrong things.
If you would like to have greater insight into your leadership and management skills, book a psychometric profile session. This helps overcome blind spots and highlights development opportunities for you. Call 0845 130 0854 to find out more.
© Tricia Woolfrey 2012
About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.
It is estimated that 15% of success is from your technical skills whereas 85% is through gaining trust and respect. So, what has knowledge to do with this? Plenty, as it happens. Knowledge covers the whole spectrum. Good technical skills are, of course, important. But not if the knowledge is out of date. Technology is changing all the time – as are trends – and it is essential to keep abreast of what’s going on in your market place and in your profession.
Solicitors and doctors go through years of training in their profession before they are able to practice. Yet, how much training have you had to run your own department, or your own business? How much knowledge have you acquired to help you be successful? Whether you are running a department or a business of your own, the knowledge you need to be effective is extremely broad and most people simply muddle through. In the meantime, what happens to the trust and respect essential to 85% of your success?
The following table helps you to understand some of the fundamentals for trust and respect and the kind of knowledge you need for them:
| TRUST AND RESPECT | KNOW-HOW |
| Good people and rapport skills | Influencing and leadership |
| Doing what you say you will do | Planning and organising |
| Doing an excellent job | Technical and delegation |
| Managing complaints effectively | Problem solving and conflict management |
| Meeting your obligations | Business acumen and resource management |
| Emotional intelligence | Understanding of people and yourself and how to manage yourself and your relationships in times of stress |
Business knowledge – such as sales, marketing, finance, operations – is important whether you run your own business or manage a department as you need to see how everything fits together. These will help you to exploit strengths, minimise weaknesses, seize opportunities and handle threats from a point of strength.
So, how can you increase your knowledge? Through coaching, training, reflective learning and study. Often, you don’t know what you don’t know (in the case of business, ignorance is not bliss) and it is helpful to have someone there who can help you see your blind-spot. Having your own coach and mentor is an excellent step to take to help you stay on top of your game. For more information call 0845 130 0854 for a no obligation chat.
© Tricia Woolfrey 2012
About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.
Judgement is your ability to assess a situation and to draw sound conclusions. This is a key factor in your decision making process. How do you judge whether something is right for your business or not? And how do other people judge you and your business? When you understand this, it can really help you:
There are various ways in which we may be convinced of something-
None are right or wrong in themselves. However, it’s possible to rely too much on a particular method which could leave you vulnerable. For example, going on gut instinct without checking the effect something has on your bottom line could affect the profitability of your business; relying on a period of time may mean that an opportunity is lost; being automatically convinced can be dangerous as there is no evaluation of the possible impact something may have; cynics can fail to take opportunities because they always find fault; depending on tried and tested methods can mean you are behind the curve in terms of your competition; relying on logic alone can mean that you are ignoring the not inconsiderable power of your intuition; depending on a trusted source requires that the trusted source be right 100% of the time or that their circumstances are the same as yours.
Ask yourself, what other factors do you need to consider when you are formulating your decisions? Do re-read the decision making part of this series.
Finally, what to do with this information when considering your customers and prospects? You will be well-advised to consider an example of all the above criteria in relation to your products and factor in where appropriate. For example, Jack has a strong gut instinct but likes to back it up with number of examples, so you might want to either find three ways of proving your product, or expect to make your case over three appointments, and follow that up with “What does your gut tell you about the suitability of our product for your business?”
Or, Sally may make her decision solely on the bottom line. So you may want to take the approach of showing the cost savings your product will give her, or the revenue potential, or perhaps some other way of impacting the bottom line.
If you aren’t sure about what someone else’s convincer strategy is, ask them how they decided to buy their latest car, computer system or even holiday. This should give you a lot of clues.
Even the most successful business people have made bad judgements in their time. However, you can minimise yours by considering all of your options to make a more informed decision.
If you would like to discuss you own business decision making strategy, or change the way others judge your business, please contact us on 0845 130 0854.
© Tricia Woolfrey 2012
About Tricia Woolfrey – click HERE to find out about the author.
